IT'S TIME TO BE INCREDIBLY AMBITIOUS

and go for it

What brought this on?

Here I am in lazy Brighton in the best weather we’ve had for ages. The birds are singing, the deck chairs are out and the roses are exploding symphonically into bloom. Maybe it’s the glorious Aegean blue skies early in the morning or maybe it’s the people I’m meeting and what they are saying that’s provoked it but I think it’s time for us all to wake up.

Let’s start with the Brighton Festival.

A huge success in 2010, aiming for better things in 2011, the number of Friends hugely increased and with Aung San Suu Kyi as guest director in the year that seems to mark the nadir for dictators. Magic. “We can really take on Edinburgh now,“ I said. No, I was told, this is little Brighton, little sister of London… Edinburgh has the clout, the history and the gravitas. And the Scottish B&Bs and the weather and the distance and the smugness.  Go for it Brighton. What’s wrong with you?

Emily Baker. Young. Singer. Songwriter. She appeared at an event called “Riding the Wave” organised by the local Chamber of Commerce. I spoke. She sang. We are bound together by virtual greasepaint. Will she make it? Conventional wisdom says she’ll struggle because she’s probably too good musically (eh?) and this is so crowded a field. But life is crowded and as BWW said “the fast always eat the slow.” So be fast Emily. Be newsy. Be ambitious, girl. I’m backing you to win.

Jess Wood. Designer. Very young. Running her own business. Just done a pack design job for Nestle. Great presence. Good work. Needs to rocket to a new level by being more daring, mould breaking and ambitious.  Be fast Jess. Dazzle us with your design-sprinting. I’m backing her too.

And Sussex CCC and Brighton and Hove Albion FC and the Olympics. Self- confident. Classy. Winners.
It’s time for the sceptics, cynics and naysayers to bow out or be ejected. It’s May 2011 and I want anyone reading this to repeat after me:

“Let’s be much more ambitious and take more risks. We have nothing to lose but our torpor”

….or our jobs?  In the case of the gloriously self-employed Emily and Jess not even that. And, anway, if that’s the price of renouncing boredom and despair, so be it.

Vote for ambition. Vote for innovation. Vote for freedom.

BOB THE BULDER IS THE ANSWER

“Bob the Builder
Can we fix it?
Bob the Builder
Yes we can!”

So it was Bob the Builder that provided Barack Obama with his campaign slogan.

And Bob the Builder with whom I am now a close friend having spent an afternoon with my very young grandsons. “And Richard has joined the building crew”. Aagghh!!

But there’s an important lesson that Bob teaches us.

That anything can be sorted out if you try hard enough. “Yes we can” is a pretty reasonable rallying cry in a climate where a few people seem to be giving up hope.

Just remember what that other Bob the Builder figure of the past week, pilot Chesley Sullenberger achieved for US Airways and 155 passengers in New York.
And both Bob and Chesley are so well mannered.

Maybe this really is the way to go. And I feel better after an afternoon with Bob.
I think this is all going to be all right in the end if a bit frightening for a while.

Just remember one thing – “brace for impact”.


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SERVICE IS GREAT

Or rather it isn’t. In the UK we were dreadful until taught how to do it right by the now retreating tide of Eastern Europeans. They swept in and showed us what good manners, customer focus, smiling and a belief the customer was ALWAYS right, can do.

We are now going to be on our own.

Let’s make 2009 the year in which we lift our game and become exceptional at serving our customers. Let’s train everyone to be great at it. We’d better….

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NEW AMERICA

2009 is the Barack story. For the first time for ages we have a world leader. And what would be interesting would be if he, Putin, Wen Jiabao, Luiz da Silva, Pratibha Patil and Ban Ki-Moon get it together.

He seems to have that crisis smile and a “don’t worry – we can sort it” attitude.

If America is happy then so are we all (remember the USA is where this started) –place hope in Obama and keep on encouraging the Americans otherwise we get Mrs. Palin next time.

Tomorrow - 'The Arts Have it"

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INNOVATION

New stuff that matters will be on what we should focus. Things like improving water purity, reducing pollution, creating better educational aids, getting mosquitos under pressure (we’re doing it!), innoculating more widely, getting HIV under control and making communication free – people power and the web.

And finally finding new ways of fighting back.

Lord Rutherford (Scientist) once said “we have no money so we shall have to think.”So think. Think about how life could improve. Think about what’s missing.

Maybe in 2009 you’ll become an inventor or mini entrepreneur just doing this.

Something tomorrow about consumerism

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BLOWING UP A MARKETING STORM IN THE WINDY CITY

Let’s go to Chicago, the birthplace of advertising, where the estate agents, builders and building merchants are all showing the kind of 121 initiatives needed in what the 2008 recession.

Century 21 – the Roberts & Andrew chain got all the shops together in Wauconda and on the evening Route 176 traffic jam, sampled products and gave out coupons to this captive and grateful audience.

At Liberty Hill there was an open house with Grandma Ann Panico of a restaurant called Trattoria Pomigliano cooking her “famous” sausage and pepper and all and sundry being invited in for lunch. Party time!

Others were holding educational seminars on issues like the $7,500 tax credits for first-time buyers.

In Northbrook Kenneth James Homes were offering half built homes at discount – a “finish it yourself” deal is what they offered. A notable success.

And at Mount Prospect North West Electric a B2B electrical supplier was running “Tasty Tuesdays” – grilled burgers and hot dogs to all their customers. An opportunity to meat, eat and chat.

What I love about all these ideas is they are relatively cheap and involve relationship building in a natural, relaxed environment. They make heavy use of food and don’t you just love “Tasty Tuesday”…I’m waiting for “Wine-soaked Wednesday” and “Frisky Friday” sponsored by Ann Summers. They are examples of having a go to dissipate woe and I applaud it. I suspect communal activity like this may become a positive marketing norm.

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SEEING INTO THE FUTURE OF BANKING

There are four new Barclays in the UK. London, Birmingham, Manchester and Brighton. I was prepared to be grudging in my interest not ever having used Barclays but I was blown away.
It’s a big space with real people in open cubicles talking to customers down one side and a counter at the end for currency and straightforward transactions, loads of ATMs, a comfortable waiting area and a control, co-ordination area run by bright cheerful girls who direct you to the right place.
The floor seems to be limestone – no horrid carpet tiles. It’s classy, airy and Terminal 5 up-market. A place you wouldn’t mind spending some time.
Upstairs they have great but little, smart and functional offices and a waiting area that is really smart for business customers and big transactions.
This is the future and I like it.
Customers are being treated like important human beings and do you know I saw staff and customers talking, laughing and having a good time.
To end this when I congratulated John Varley he wrote a delightful – “I’m always here for you” letter in reply. And you know I believed him.
This is a revolution.

WHAT PRICE SURVIVAL?

What price survival?

I am like Sir John Hegarty an incorrigible optimist – it’s all going to be all right.
But I do remember the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.

Marylebone High Street was a wasteland of charity shops. Businesses went bust left, right and centre. Britain was pretty well bankrupt.

We are in much better shape but one issue is preying on most minds. How will the price issue work out?

· Price is a huge issue right now in retail. The cheap supermarkets are doing really well. Expect further turmoil. Pity Tesco.
· There’s nothing wrong with the word cheap.
· Treasure Island as premium priced United Kingdom is called by the automotive industry is going to change.
· Everyone can ask for a discount and get it.
· Smart operators are buying long term relationships…buy my paper up front for a year and I’ll give you a third off.

Don’t be afraid of asking what you need but don’t assume you’ll get what you asked for.

Price is a dynamite new topic. But real talent and genius will prevail – it always does.





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